The Ministry of Justice has added to the register of “foreign agents”: the lead singer of Little Big, a representative of the 14th Dalai Lama and others

The Ministry of Justice has expanded the register of “foreign agents” to include:

• lead singer of the Little Big group Ilya Prusikin,
• journalist Fidel Agumawu,
• Buddhist figure, President of the Buddhists of Kalmykia and official representative of the XIV Dalai Lama in Russia, Mongolia and the CIS countries Erdni-Basan Ombadykov,
• Chairman of the Tatar Public Center, co-founder of “Free Idel-Ural” Rafis Kashapov,
• coordinator of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance Daria Serenko.

Two organizations were also included in the register: Philosophy of Nonviolence LLC and the Digital Rights Development Foundation. “Philosophy of Nonviolence” is a legal entity created in January by philosopher Ruben Apresyan , musician Andrei Makarevich , human rights activist Olympiada Usanova , lawyer Mikhail Benyash and journalists Andrei Kolesnikov and Dmitry Lyubimov , previously included in the register of “foreign agents”. The Digital Rights Development Fund is headed by the head of Roskomsvoboda, Artem Kozlyuk.

21:44 The Ministry of Justice published explanations about each of the new “foreign agents”. All of them, according to the department, spoke out against the war in Ukraine and live outside of Russia.

Officials also charged Prusikin with giving concerts in “unfriendly countries,” Kashapov with calling for “a fight against the current government of the Russian Federation,” and Agumava and Serenko with promoting LGBT relations.

• In September 2015, Rafis Kashapov was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of calling for separatism (Article 280.1 of the Criminal Code) and inciting hatred (Part 1 of Article 282 of the Criminal Code). In 2018, Kashapov left Russia . After this, a new case of incitement to hatred was opened against him. Kashapov received political asylum in the UK.
• In December 2022, the law and numerous legislative amendments to “foreign agency” regulation came into force. Among other things, they tighten liability for failure to submit reports to the Ministry of Justice, and also abolish banking, family and commercial secrets. More details in the analysis of OVD-Info .
• In addition, Vladimir Putin signed a law on imprisonment for a term of up to five years for “foreign agents” who were brought to justice twice in a year for violating the procedure for the activities of a “foreign agent” (Article 19.34 of the Administrative Code).
• OVD-Info launched the Inoteka project. We investigate practices of pressure on civil initiatives and protect victims from laws on “foreign agents.”